I am reassured that the Prime Minister is saying how serious and serious difficulties await us - writes István Forgács, an expert on Roma issues and a policy advisor on catching up.
“Well, here we are. This is Kimberly, Jessica and Jennifer. Aren't they sweet?
Wow. Are you not a gypsy?
Do you command, madam?
I'm asking, aren't there any Gypsies?
There is, but less. The process to adopt from those babies takes much longer. However, any of these three fairies can be adopted within days.
No problem. We'll wait. You don't need a gypsy child. We know their species. Everyone knows their species. Who knows what's in their blood. And in Újbigottcia, where we live - you know, we just call it that (giggles) - there are not many gypsy children running around on the playground. You understand, right?”
***
The probability that this dialogue will take place today in Hungary (read: Budapest) is clearly much, much higher than the actual deprivation of rights or physical atrocity for any minority. While, of course, there is no doubt about it: the above astonishing dialogue, or a whole series of similar ones, has occurred hundreds of times in the past decades in this country (meaning: in large numbers in Budapest). And in many cases these thoughts came out of the mouths of people (indicating what they are experiencing specifically in relation to the Gypsies) who for two days have been packing more and more suitcases in the middle of crocodile tears to flee this country, exactly as everyone else does before and after the election.
There are not so many suitcases in this country in which the colors and flowers of the domestic democrats have not escaped dozens of times, but somehow they are still here and
they still find as much democracy as Orbán is destroying right now.
And next month and in the spring as well. But adopting a gypsy child is not really a democratic thing, and those crazy prejudices somehow show up in them sometimes. Mostly when choosing a school, and if you have to adopt a child.
Someone once mentioned with a bitter smile that if there is any kind of racial protection, then the majority society's non-adoption of Gypsy children who are in state care must be it. And the most from liberal thinkers.
In this country, since Szálasi, everyone who wants to talk about what it is like to be a person has been forced to do so. Or what people are like. Even if anyone does it rationally, rationally and constructively, either for their own sake or for the sake of their national community. While we can safely say that the number of crazy people who still see themselves as classic species defenders is negligible.
After the Second World War, the gypsy, the Jew, the religious did not fit into the communist worldview and the unified image of the person of socialism for nearly half a century, and the state power did everything to prevent these people from being seen. But a person is a person in order to see, notice, experience another person, and have an opinion and experience about him. People form families, groups, communities, and cultures all over the world, and thanks to globalism, these families, groups, communities, and cultures are closer to us than ever before and can interact with us more directly than ever before. Even if we don't necessarily want it, or not in the way they want it, and maybe even less in the way the excessive political correctness imposed on the world would expect.
Of course, how inclusive a nation or a commonwealth is, and how accepting it is of its own minorities, depends on many things. And a very serious responsibility rests on everyone (any member of a given minority, the prime minister, party leader, taxi driver, corner spice shop, Mandiner commentator) who can shape and shape how we ourselves, our own commonwealth, see others. Those who are different simply because they are different. Just as we ourselves are different in other parts of the world and to other people's families, groups and nations.
Regarding our own internal, most relevant minorities, I would like to point out:
Hungarian society has clearly become more accepting of the gay community and gypsies in the past decade, just as there is much more openness than rejection towards Jews.
No, it's not subjective, it's everyday practice.
The Prime Minister's speech was exactly what many people expected. The explanation of a leading politician who wants to see until 2030 and who wants to show political direction for at least 2 more cycles - that is, offer - the political community to which he constantly owes a worldview and regional policy in exchange for the trust placed in him , offers an economically defensible future and, most importantly, security. Either by trying to keep overheads low or by raising the border fence. There is no need to elaborate on this further, since even at this moment hundreds of people are writing angry, seemingly desperate, but mostly inspired by political revenge lines about how all elements of the two-thirds are Nazis, and that anyone who does not speak up against what was said over the weekend is no better for those who quietly and consentingly put the Jews on the train eight decades ago.
And I'm not saying that it was "unlucky" or that it was "bad wording" to mention mixed races. Of course, there are those who have only this left, because they are only thirsty for these words, they are hungry for them in every single Fidesz cycle, and at such times they want to eat and drink themselves unconscious with them. And he does. Moreover, he does it together with others, and he wants everyone who has now found power to be his partner. Then he mutters in a lifeless way about the need to escape from here, he has always said it before, and it is not even a real Jew/Gypsy/Pirez who does not feel collectively attacked now.
On the contrary, I say that
it reassures me that the Prime Minister says how serious, serious difficulties await us.
That he is aware of it and wants us to see it and understand it. And it indicates that in the years ahead we need a unified, real nation, in which the ratio of people of mixed and non-mixed races depends mostly on how many remain who have rationality, a healthy life instinct, their own Carpathian basins, Eastern Central Europe and the Balkans (yes, I wrote that) will be the clear life space, and in this dimension he will look for knowledge, tasks, things to do, a task to be solved, a mission that can help the nation and the region as a whole. Because we have to fight for energy, food, national unity, regional peace. To me, the gypsy - the father of three children of mixed race in the literal sense - this is what everything that was said meant. But neither I, nor my family, nor my parents, nor my children are always looking for why we should feel less, different, and most importantly, offended. My name and my origin are a given, I can't really change that.
Of course, I must always be responsible for my actions and words, and that is why I clearly and unambiguously undertake that
To me, the speech in Tusványos announced the need and necessity of a more meaningful collaboration than ever before. Yes.
I do not see separation, theoretical and even less practical expulsion from the nation in these words, but a call for unity. That Gypsies, Jews, and Pérez also feel that the prime minister and the nation can count on them. And let them finally come to their senses: no nameable minority can impose on themselves at all costs that they should live in fear of the future. Mostly not because the members of all significant minorities are present in the most important cultural, economic and political spaces in this society. No one can dispute this in Hungary today.
And of course those who just now feel like they want to free themselves from the past twelve years are understandable. Or they don't want to take part in the more serious and difficult challenges of the coming years. Even if they had a dedicated task, they had a real mandate until now to help social integration (including the Gypsies) and to reduce tensions between social groups. Which may be able to strengthen again, since the danger of recession also threatens social peace.
Perhaps some may feel that the new challenges require a level of loyalty and commitment from them towards the Prime Minister that they are no longer able to show. But they are also surrounded by respect and esteem, certainly because they were able to make a decision. And every serious, undertaken decision - whether someone leaves the Opera or resigns from the position of advisor to the Prime Minister - can earn the recognition of history and individual political and ideological expert camps, and obviously disapproval from those on the opposite side. This is the peculiarity of politics, and it cannot be changed. Instead, it should be promoted that we try to help those who have work and tasks with this country along the lines of acceptable and clear narratives. In fact, we can even undertake those tasks ourselves. If it happens, even instead of others.
Maybe that's it. And those who want to adopt a child can start right away to take the gypsy babies home. Even to Újlipotváros.
Photo: István Forgács collection
